Reddy firm questions CEC mandate on illegal mining
In its submission filed before the Supreme Court-appointed Committee last week, the OMC, owned by State Tourism Minister Janardhana Reddy, has accused the CEC of looking into issues that are not within its mandate.
The OMC stated that “the Hon’ble Committee is traversing much beyond the mandate given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, and is also traversing into various unnecessary issues which are not germane to issues involved.”
The CEC has been investigating the mining activities of the OMC after a Supreme Court order November last year.
The Supreme Court, hearing a petition between the government of Andhra Pradesh and the OMC, directed the CEC to find out whether illegal mining was going on in the forest area in Bellary region near six lease areas.
On December 16, the CEC identified 15 issues, including the encroachment of six mines in the Bellary forest area, construction of illegal roads, location of boundary pillars demarcating Andhra-Karnataka border, and illegal deployment of heavy earth machinery.
The company also criticised the CEC for conducting the entire investigation “in a manner as to support an earlier report that it had submitted in November 2009.”
On the basis of this report, the Andhra Pradesh government had then ordered the OMC to stop mining till the demarcation of the boundary of the mining leases was done.
“It can be seen from the communication dated 16.12.2010 that the Central Empowered Committee has re-commenced its exercise much before the date in the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, and made all efforts to support its ex parte and ab initio void report dated 19.11.2010,” the OMC submitted.
Unprecedented move
The OMC also questioned the wisdom of appointing another committee when the Composite Survey Committee had already submitted a report in June last year.
The mining firm has claimed that asking the CEC to comment on the report prepared by experts of the Composite Survey Committee was “unprecedented”.
DH News Service